Indian government’s development plans for the Andamans may endanger the world’s largest sea turtles
The government wants to open Little Andaman and ‘release the area for deployment of strategic assets’.
A leatherback sea turtle at a nesting site in the Little Andaman.
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Adith Swaminathan/ Mongabay India
A 58-page, undated “vision document” for the “sustainable development” of the Little Andaman Island in the Bay of Bengal was produced by the NITI Aayog, a think tank of the central government.
The document, not in the public domain but reviewed by
Mongabay-India, states that “ecological and environmental constraints” have meant that the strategic and economic potential of the island, about 675 sq km in area, were never developed to their full potential; 95% of the island is under forest cover.